“The real question is what Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will do – the final decision is his”.
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The company wants to triple the capacity of its line, which transports diluted bitumen from Alberta to Burnaby. The approval itself “proves that Canada’s environmental review process remains broken”, the Green Party said in a press release – since, apparently, a functional review would by nature deny even the least disruptive of pipeline proposals.
“We’ll be reviewing the NEB recommendations, and we’ll be watching closely as the new federal panel and the court-ordered provincial panel complete the First Nations and community consultations neglected by the Harper process”. He added that the NEB report does not address the four key concerns he set out in opposing the proposed pipeline expansion project.
Grassroots groups have also been extremely active – staging a national-headline-making occupation of Burnaby Mountain during Kinder Morgan surveying in 2014, and regular demonstrations since. “I think the conditions are really not going to do anything to prevent the inevitable catastrophe that would happen with an oil spill in Vancouver”.
Environmentalists also say they will seek to put pressure on the federal government. The Trans Mountain project would carry oil from Alberta to the Vancouver, B.C., area to be loaded on to tankers for Asian and USA markets. It will also generate more than $23 billion in additional local government taxes annually in BC, which is more than double the current amount. “That’s really the wild card right now”, said Christie. We’ll know soon the extent to which these deficiencies are captured in the board’s final report, but it is a certainty that climate change, the proverbial elephant in the room during these pipeline reviews, will barely register. “We need the federal Liberal government, along with other provincial and municipal politicians, to stop delaying and undermining the confidence in this independent process and back these critical projects that will grow our economy”. The 1,150-kilometer (714-mile) pipeline runs from outside Edmonton over the Rocky Mountains to Burnaby, British Columbia, near Vancouver.
The company just signed a benefits agreement this week, of which the details were not disclosed, with the Simpcw First Nation, north of Kamloops.
Various cities and regional districts lodged their objections at NEB hearings on the project, while other prominent interveners pulled out of the process last summer, denouncing it as rigged in favour of Kinder Morgan.
“Nobody had much hope the NEB would act in the public interest and reject this project”, said Peter McCartney, a climate campaigner for the group. From the ramifications of increased tanker traffic to the devastating effect of a possible oil spill, some groups plan to take legal action to halt the project. For example, it found marine vessels related to Trans Mountain would further contribute to cumulative effects that are already jeopardizing the recovery of the southern resident killer whale population off B.C.’s coast.
The NEB is requiring Kinder Morgan to file an updated greenhouse gas assessment two months after the pipeline is built.
“Today’s decision is good news for workers, families and communities across British Columbia”, says ICBA President Philip Hochstein.
“That’s the NEB’s approval, that’s not the government’s approval”, he said.
“This project is a big economic win for B.C. and for Canada”.
British Columbia Premier Christy Clark has said oil pipelines, including Trans Mountain, must satisfy conditions such as providing the province with economic benefits and addressing aboriginal concerns.
“This decision is a milestone for the future of Canada”.
“It’s clear and apparent that we have the best interest to protect the land and the water, which we’ve been doing historically for thousands of years”.
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“It’s never really over in political events when people haven’t been able to speak …” “The fishing grounds of the Salish Sea are the lifeblood of our peoples”.
